Soubry was joined at the Department of Health by Daniel Poulter, a former obstetrician and women's health specialist who spoke out strongly in parliament last year against the Dorries bid to strip abortion providers such as Marie Stopes of their counselling role and hand it over to "independent" organisations not linked to abortion clinics.

In the immediate aftermath of the reshuffle, it was unclear who was in line to inherit Milton's public health portfolio. However, there will be much scrutiny of the attitude the new person takes towards a number of policy options put forward by civil servants, including one that would allow anti-abortion organisations to offer publicly funded pregnancy counselling services. These have been discussed by a cross-party group set up by Milton and are due to go out to public consultation.

Darinka Aleksic, campaign director at Abortion Rights, the national pro-choice campaign, said: "This reshuffle has not been particularly good news for women and it is disappointing that David Cameron has chosen to promote anti-choice MPs to key roles. So we are delighted that Anna Soubry has been appointed to the Department of Health. It's vital that the ministers responsible for overseeing abortion services are supportive of women's right to choose."

Aleksic, who also welcomed Poulter's appointment, added: "Anne Milton oversaw the debacle of abortion counselling changes while in charge at public health, which caused huge alarm among women, abortion providers and pro-choice advocates. Few tears will be shed at her departure and we are confident that Anna Soubry will take a more positive approach to reproductive and sexual health services."

Dorries, meanwhile, expressed her happiness on Twitter with the changes, tweeting: "I'm liking this re-shuffle. Grant to Chairman, Jeremy to Health, Chris to Justice, Maria to DCMS Theresa Villiers to NI. All good moves."